FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 19 37 161 



Statistics of quantities of frozen fish moving in and out of cold 

 storage and the amount of fish in cold storage are given daily and 

 weelvly, respectively, in the fishery news releases issued by the Divi- 

 sion's market news offices in Boston, Mass., and New York, N. Y. 

 This service is discussed in greater detail elsewhere in this section. 



UNITED STATES FISHERIES OFF FOREIGN COUNTRIES 



A study made during the year shows that about 14 percent of the 

 value of the catch of the domestic fisheries is represented by products 

 taken off foreign coasts. Specifically, the sources and classes of the 

 more important of these products were as follows: Ofi^ Newfoundland 

 and Nova Scotia, principallv cod, haddock, and other groundfish, 

 151,000,000 pounds, valued a't $4,600,000; oft' the west coasts of Latin 

 American countries, mainly tuna and tunalike fishes, 121,000,000 

 pounds, valued at $5,900,000; ofl' British Columbia, largely salmon 

 and halibut, 16,000,000 pounds, valued at $1,000,000; off the east 

 coast of Alexico (Campeche Bank), chiefly red snappers and groupers, 

 4,000,000 pounds, valued at $200,000; and off Austraha, 1,508 whales 

 (weight undetermined), from which were produced whale and sperm 

 oil valued at $1,300,000. It will be observed that the total value 

 of the fisheries oft' foreign coasts to domestic fishermen was about 

 $13,000,000. 



MIGRATORY FISH OF THE ATLANTIC AND GULF COASTS 



Members of the Division's staff devoted a great deal of time during 

 the year to the preparation of historical statistics and graphic charts 

 of the catch of migratory fish and shellfish common to the Atlantic 

 and Gulf coasts for use in the deliberations of the two eastern zones 

 of the National Planning Council of Game and Commercial Fish 

 Commissioners at their meeting with officials of this Bureau in 

 Atlantic City, N. J., on February 6, 1937. 



The data prepared in this Division covered the trends of the catch 

 of 17 important migratory fish and shellfish. These data were supple- 

 mented b}^ members of the staff of the Division of Scientific Inquiry 

 to include discussions of the physical characteristics and habits of 

 these species, and all the material was included in Special Memoran- 

 dum No. 3239, entitled "Migratory Fish of the Atlantic and Gulf 

 Coasts." The species covered by the report were cod, haddock, 

 flounders, mackerel, sea herring, whiting, scup, sea bass, shad, ale- 

 wives, croakers, squeteagues, Spanish mackerel, mullet, lobsters, 

 crabs, and shrimp. 



COMMERCIAL FISHERIES OF THE WORLD 



On the basis of the most recent available data, the United States, 

 including Alaska, ranks first in value of annual yield of fishery products 

 among the countries of the world and is exceeded only by Japan in 

 the volume of the yield. The catch by commercial fishermen of the 

 United States, based principally on data for 1936, amounted to 

 4,800,000,000 pounds, valued at $93,000,000, while that of Japan, 

 whicli is partly estimated, amounted to 0,600,000,000 pounds, valued 

 at $87,000,000. Other countries whose annual commercial fisheries 

 catch exceeded 1 billion pounds were Union of Soviet Socialist 



